LAUGH WITH THE PUNJABIS – PART IV

I am a Punjabi Sikh by birth; my dad’s side of the family being from the village in Ropar (now Rupnagar) district of Punjab, and my mother’s side of people from village Urapur near Nawanshaher in Punjab.

From the time I was small, I have been exposed to Punjabi humour. About a year ago, I have started a group on Facebook to promote Punjabi humour. The group is called ‘Laugh With The Punjabis’. At the time of writing it has nearly 12000 members.

Why Punjabi jokes and humour? Punjabis are the only people who can not only sportively take a joke on themselves, but, can be expected to tell you two jokes about themselves for every one cracked by you. The community is now counted amongst the most progressive and generous communities in the world.

You can always join the group (it is free to men and women, boys and girls of all communities, regions, age and nationalities. I have ensured that none of the humour there is directed against any people. And, you don’t laugh at the Punjabis but laugh with the Punjabis.

In our village in Punjab, on one rare occasion, a train arrived on time.

It was a stunning event and the villagers quickly organised a function; garlanded the engine and the driver and distributed sweets. A speech praising the engine driver was made by the Sarpanch and the engine driver was asked to say a few words.

After the partition in 1947, as this Punjabi family from Lahore shifted to Ludhiana, the father had a pet reply to all the demands of his only son: “Oye, oh tanh reh gayi Lahore.” For example, the conversation between them would go somewhat like this:

Balwant and Satwant two friends were going on a mobike and felt the strong breeze hitting them hard in the winters. Especially, the wind was going from the shirt front gaps between the buttons and slashing their chests like bullets.

So, they came up with a practical idea. They wore their shirts backwards and helped each other button them up.

After some time, the mobike hit against a gadda (bullock cart) and they and the mobike fell.

The villagers rushed to give them “first-aid” as they would readily do in any village in Punjab.

About me

I have done a long stint in the Indian Navy that lasted for nearly thirty seven years; I rose as far as my somewhat rebellious and irreverant nature allowed me to. On retirement, in Feb 2010, the first thing that occured to me, and those around me, was that I Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (you will find an article with this title in this blog) and hadn't lost all my noodles and hence thought of a blog titled 'This 'n That'. I later realised that every third blog is called 'This 'n That' and changed the name to 'Sunbyanyname'.
I detest treading the beaten track. This blog offers me to air 'another way' of looking at things. The idea is not just to entertain but also to bring about a change. Should you feel differently, you are free to leave your comments. You can leave comments even when you agree and want to share your own experience about the topic of the blog post.
Impudent or otherwise, I have never been insousciant and I am always concerned about the betterment of community, nation and the world. I hope the visitors of this blog would be able to discern it.